The Rarotongan Beach Resort & Lagoonarium, Cook IslandsRarotonga
Turou oro mai: Welcome to
the Cook Islands
- The Cook Islands are in the South Pacific and span over 2 Million sqkm: there are 15 islands the northern Islands (with corral atolls) and the southern Islands (which are vulcanic islands) – the real landmass is only 240 sqkm: We visited only 2 out of the 15 islands: Rarotonga (the largest and most populated) and Aitutaki (the most beautiful lagoon in the world and 2nd most visited island)
- The Cook Island greeting is Kia Orana and it means “may you live long” and The foundation of the culture is “tiakitanga” or “looking after one another”
- When people arrive in the Cook Island, they often get a floral necklace which symbolizes commitment to make sure that you are taken care off while spending time here
- Rarotonga is the main Island where most of the people live and Aitutaki is the 2nd most visited island
- Actually, more Cook Islanders live overseas than in the Cook Islands: only 21.000 people live here as where twice as many live in New Zealand (by the way Niki was born in Aitutaki and lived for over 20 years in New Zealand before coming back) and interestingly every Cook Islander has also a New Zealand passport
- Some of the islands are uninhabited – one Suwarrow is even a NP, some only have a small number of people living on them like Palmerstone with a pop of 50, some are very remote like Pukapuka which is 1150 km from Rarotonga and is actually closer to Samoa (by the way going there is not simple as there is a flight every 6 weeks and often cancelled): the 80 people living there even have their own language, then there are the two islands with the black pearls: Rakahanga and Manhiki. To go to the isolated Island of Nassau you need around 3 days with a combination of plane and by boat, they only got telephone in 2001 and many didn’t know how to use it.
- It is named after Captain James Cook who landed in Palmerstone in the 1700s at the time he called them Hervey Islands
- We are using New Zealand currency – but they do have Cook Island dollars and we were lucky and got some of the triangle cook island dollars back
- It has two official languages: English and Cook Island Maori
- If you know the saying “the sky is the limit” in the Cook Islands “the coconut tree is the limit” as it is mandated that no building is higher than a coconut tree
- You can’t buy land in the Cook Islands – the houses get handed down in the family, this way every person has a place to stay (but you can lease a house or a land)
- By the way there are no fast-food chains here – all is local and there are no traffic lights!!!! (but they do have 3 traffic circles)
- Wherever you turn you see the bright tropical colors and movement: the sway of the palm trees – the sea and the winds – the dancers and you always feel the warmth of the local people
The largest of the islands:
Rarotonga:
- It is the largest of the Cook Islands with the most people: yes 13.000 of the 21.000 people live here
- Avarua is here, the Capital of the Cook Islands
- Oh, and we are on water restriction as Rarotonga suffers from a shortage of rainfall which impacts the towns water supply (That is interesting as a big cyclone with lots and lots of water hit the island a week ago and it is raining like every night)
- oh and it has one main road which goes in a circle around the whole island (with a few short streets towards the mountains) and it takes an hour to drive all around (which we did at one time)
The car rental is not open for
domestic flights
We are flying with Air Rarotonga
which connects some of the “bigger islands”. We approach and yes Paul was the
lucky one who had the nicer view approaching but then it is also super cloudy.
It is funny, here you go out of the plane and walk over to the terminal, outside
of the plane was a guy and opened and gave everyone an umbrella so you won’t
get wet. After we got our luggage, we headed to the international arrival
because we saw on our way last time that the car rental companies there. And
everything is closed, at the Avis door it said: only open for international
arrivals, otherwise make arrangements. I mean we did arrange for the pick up at
12.45 and that is what it is now. As there is no phone number we couldn’t’ even
call anyone. After we waited a bit and no-one came Paul went across the road
where another car rental is, who told Paul he should look as our car is maybe
there and there would be a big sign with our name in the window and then we can
go and drive away (really – we haven’t even paid). This was not the case and
the guy called then the Avis people who said that they will come. So nearly an
hour later finally the lady comes, and we get our car.
We come to the resort and wait
As we drive towards the resort
Gine thought we can stop at a grocery store along the way – but the first ones
were so super small they didn’t have what we wanted: oat milk for coffee (in
Aitutaki they only sold Almond milk – but we would be fine with that too), but
we did find a super cool bakery and we couldn’t resist to get ourselves some
sweets. At the 3rd supermarket we actually found oat milk and it is
the same price as in New Zealand – wow!!!
We arrived at the Rarotonga Beach
Resort and lagoonarium, this is a super cool place – we are here earlier then
the check in and as our room originally is upstairs they said they could give
us a downstairs but they have to clean it first – but then it was not big deal
we got our wifi (here in Rarotonga you have to pay for Wifi by GB) and then
relaxed in the super cool area between the tropical plants as it also rained.
We did a walk around the resort to check it out and we are so happy we are here
-this is a super classy and super cool place with amazing pool, restaurant over
the ocean with the fish swimming underneath, we read that here is the best
snorkeling on the island… and we are in a room right at the ocean – so amazing!!
Let’s get spoiled.
A bit late but we are finally in
our room and we love it – have a cup of coffee and go for a swim in the pool in
the drizzling rain, before changing and having a nice pizza overlooking the
ocean. Oh, I may should mention – right near our room is the Gazebo and there
was a wedding going on when we arrived and they also had the reception in the
open restaurant area where we were eating – which gave us some nice maori live
music.
Ok, we are so happy we are here
for a whole week – no packing and unpacking – and even if the weather wouldn’t
be that great there is so much we can do here and enjoy – it is perfect makes
us ready for the cruise.
Only downside – as everything is
only two stories and we wanted a beach front we do have to walk a bit… as well
we have to figure out a system so that we don’t bring in too much sand into our
room….
Polynesian Breakfast
We read on previous reviews that
people complained about the breakfast as they said you don’t get that much
variety for what you pay – we don’t really care, as we have breakfast included
in our price. We also read that if you come to late then some of the staff is
gone and so we decided to go earlier than we normally have breakfast. After a
coffee and shower we headed over and got an ocean front table – perfect. And we
enjoyed a nice continental breakfast: fresh fruits, cheese & spam, cereal,
buns, croissants and juice – plenty enough to eat.
And it is a lot of fun to check
out the fish swimming around here – and if you throw tiny pieces of bread it
they come in swarms
The Rarotonga Beach and
Lagoonarium:
- We feel a bit like on the cruise ship as we get daily papers with what is going on today at the Resort like an orientation tour, fish feeding and guided snorkeling tours or night snorkeling, site inspections or hat weaving,
- The Resort is at Aroa Beach: a Marine reserve (no fishing allowed), it is perfect for seeing sunsets, with nice white sandy beaches and typically calm and clear waters: here you can see a lot of fish and turtles (Paul saw one)
- Ararongi Beach (we are bit south of it) is a long uninterrupted beach for miles where most of Rarotongas resorts are as it is also the sunset coast
Time to hit the road and go
East
The weather forecast is so far
only partly right, as it is not raining, but it is still cloudy – today we are
heading east towards Muri beach. It is super pretty to drive along here with
all that green and also the mountains we can see. And we can clearly see the
difference from the remote and still undeveloped Aitutaki to the touristy
Rarotonga. Our first stop is at a garden and we enjoy some nice plants until we
come to the point where you would have to pay – and as we already saw many
gardens for free – we turn around. Next stop was at the Museum about the
history of the Cook Island, but we decided that price is also to steep for us. We
then stopped at a “park” like area where we had some views on the Muri lagoon
area as well there was a memorial only we couldn’t’ read it because it is in
Maori.
Muri Beach
- Here is Avana Point or the Vaca Migration site: from here the Maori set off in their vaca (canoes) to migrate to New Zealand. Many NZ’s can trace back their ancestry to here
- This is the most popular beach on the island – and from here you can see 4 motus (islets)
Everyone talks about the pretty
Muri Beach and the islands there – so Gine said we are going there today: first
road we took towards the beach was wrong, but then we got the right turn and we
got to the parking lot. And then we are at this nice clean sandy beach area –
with the two islands or Motu’s inside the lagoon here – we even went into the
water!!! We enjoyed the sun peaking out between the clouds – it was also fun to
walk a bit along the beach – and as we decided that it is indeed a pretty beach
we do think that our beach is as nice.
Titikaveta CICC Church &
cemetery
On the way here Gine saw several
cemeteries and also this church and that meant we first stopped at the cemetery
– ok a lot of the grave stones we couldn’t read as they are in Maori – it is
very different than we are used at home.
The next stop was this huge church
the Titikaveta CICC church: it is closed but still amazing to see from the
outside and also to walk around the white limestone painted white graves
- This church is a historic building from 1833, it is named Betela meaning “house of God” and it was the 3rd church being built on Rarotonga
- The building was made with hand-sawn blocks of coral which were cut from the ancient reef that runs along the beach (I wonder if they thought about protecting the environment)
- The 8 pillars inside the church signify the 8 chiefs of the village which accepted Christianity
- Teava an early convent from Tikikaveta became a missionary and went to Samoa in 1832 – he was one of the first locally trained missionaries from Rarotonga to spread the gospel elsewhere in the Pacific
Along the Beach
As we continued on, we found
another area with picnic tables (or what once were some) – we stopped and
walked down to the beach and here are also a lot of coconuts on the ground
(which are by the way heavy) – we love those beautiful beaches and the amazing
color of the water
Resort time….
We headed back and first jumped
into the pool to cool down as well get rid of all the salt water – what is
super cool here, the pool has some waterfalls and you can kind of get a back
massage. From there we headed into the ocean – and enjoyed the nice water –
even the water inside the lagoon is not very deep and you can’t really swim. As
we were in the water and looked back, we saw dark grey – black clouds coming
from one direction heading fast – as on the other side there was blue sky – and
as we stayed in the water and watched we saw it all passing by…. No rain for us
only a bit a drizzle.
Out in the kayaks
We decided to have a nice coffee
break – and relax on our little patio before we went back to get the kayaks and
to head out into the lagoon – super cool. Sadly, we can’t take pictures as our
water camera less than a year old stopped working (yes, we are not so happy
about that). The sun is out and we have blue sky – the water sparkles and looks
amazing: when looking down we can see some fish and Paul even saw a turtle. We
discovered that it is not very deep at all and paddled towards the reef and
when you look back it blows your mind the green mountain hills with some clouds
swirling around them – the blue sky, the amazing beach with the palm trees
hanging over it (like we know it from the pictures) – and us in the kayaks
relaxing and enjoying – it is so pretty. Once back we jump again in the water –
to get rid of the salt again.
Muri night market or
Charlies???
A few times a week is a night market in Muri –
and we decided that is super cool we will go there – ok, we are not that
impressed because you get the same food like you would in the restaurant – for
the same price (no it is not cheaper) and you sit on the picnic benches as
where in the restaurant you are sitting overlooking the ocean. And so, we
decided that is a “tourist trap” and we are going to Charlies and here we had a
beautiful table right over the water and had the most amazing view on the
overhanging palm trees and the lagoon and an amazing BBQ’d chicken (wow we got
a lot, it was so much we didn’t even eat it all).
Sunset at Aora Beach
When booking we decided to look
for something on the western side as there you can see the famous sunsets of
the tropical islands and with our beach front bungalow we are sitting in the
loungers and listen to the movement of the palm trees and see the red sky with
the palm trees…. What more do we want.
It is so perfect here – and we are
so happy that the weather forecast was wrong again (yes since we are in the
Cook Island the weather is always the opposite of what they forecasted).
2025-05-23